


Of New Places and New Homes

by waterpots



Category: Oh My Girl (Band)
Genre: F/F, farming au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-20
Updated: 2017-01-20
Packaged: 2018-09-18 20:18:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,365
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9401345
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/waterpots/pseuds/waterpots
Summary: For Anonymous. Fluffy Jihooa farming au





	

**Author's Note:**

> [5/30/17] HELLO!! oh my girl fic exchange!! https://ohmygirlexchange.dreamwidth.org/6570.html
> 
> Prompt: Fluffy Jiho/Yooa fic
> 
> Author's note: last time i went fishing i was less than 10. Have u ever played stardew valley? I’m so sorry that i meant to write this really short like 2000 words thing in a day it’s been more than a day. I’m sorry if this isn’t exactly what u were wanting ;; (WHAT A RUSH I'M GOING TO DIE)

 

 

Jiho sat up in her bed, shaking her head lightly and rubbing her eyes. She wanted to turn off her alarm, the obnoxious sound preventing her from going back to sleep, but she’d placed the clock across the room so she couldn’t shut it off and go straight back to sleep. It was clever on the part of the Jiho of last night, but she was now left in the unfortunate position of having to step on the cold ground and get to said alarm clock. 

Jiho grumbled her whole walk over, something about the summer and how you would think that with everything being hot as hell that the ground could at least follow suit, finally shutting off the obnoxious noise. She shook her head one last time, trying to shake the tiredness out of her system, before venturing into the kitchen. 

It was five in the morning and Jiho was not prepared to start the day. She did anyway, something pushing her towards the kitchen to make coffee, grabbing a pair of socks on her way. She put them on while standing, as the coffee brewed, her eyes still bleary. 

The door opened without any prior warning, making Jiho jump. She turned partially, giving up halfway through, just barely able to see a blonde blob bob towards her from her peripheral vision.

“I thought I was going to have to wake you up,” the blob said, and Jiho recognized the voice as Mimi’s, although the person did not look very much like Mimi--more inhuman than Mimi.

“I have an alarm clock,” Jiho grumbled, turning back to her coffee and pouring herself a cup.

“That’s fair but I always slept through mine and you- hey!” A hand grabbed Jiho’s hand, the one holding the pot of coffee, pulling it so the pot was facing upright and not pouring our any more. 

“You aren’t the coffee police.” Jiho tried to glare at Mimi, but she wasn’t sure if she was facing the right direction, or if Mimi was behind her.

“You were about to overfill the cup,” Mimi said through a long sigh. “Go wash your face and we’ll eat breakfast after.” She turned Jiho and pushed her a little so Jiho was walking forward. “Today’s a big day!” Jiho let out a small laugh and began moving towards her room.

* * *

 

“How long can you be here?” Jiho asked, staring at the land in front of them.

“All day today, but I’ll only be able to give you a few hours a day after this,” Mimi said, rolling up her sleeves. “It’ll be fine. I’ll just teach you the basics and you’ll be on your way.”

“Do you know what you’re doing?” 

“Not really,” Mimi said with a shrug. “The parents have a small little farm in the backyard, but most of the time we would forget about it and the crops would die. Granted it was easier to forget about a small plot in the backyard than your entire yard, so I’m sure you won’t forget.”

“Sure,” Jiho said, mirroring Mimi, rolling up her sleeves as well. “How hard can it be?”

It was difficult at first, incredibly difficult. Nearly back-breaking at times (Jiho stopped viewing the phrase “back-breaking hard work” as hyperbole after the first time she had to visit Hyojung on less than casual circumstances, the image of the worried look that had been etched on Hyojung’s face as she handed Jiho prescription of medication and a warning to take two weeks off and “not be so foolish again”). 

Someone had to do it, and Jiho was proud to be that someone (she barely took a week off from working from her back issue. Hyojung noticed the next time Jiho was in). In the beginning there was a lot to do, and Jiho barely had any time to focus on anything other than her work. The plot of land she’d been left had good soil, but years of maltreatment left it in a less than desirable state for a young farmer who had no idea what she was doing. But Jiho did her best with what she was given, slowly but surely turning the plot of land into an actual farm.

* * *

 

“Introducing….Farmer Kim Jiho!”  Seunghee said, followed by a chorus of laughter. Jiho had been forced by Mimi to head to the local bar in order to meet Mimi’s friends, more or less uncomfortably paraded around to everyone they could find. Mimi’s friends were nice--Hyojung had a brilliant smile and Seunghee’s sense of humor was impossible not to appreciate. Jiho was tired though, and spending her Friday out, knowing she had to be up at five then next morning to start watering the crops darkened some of the enjoyment Jiho could be having.

She finally got the opportunity to excuse herself after twenty minutes of Hyojung prodding for Jiho’s life story, making her way to the bar to try and get another drink. The bartender greeted her with a large smile--almost everyone had greeted her that way, and Jiho was left wondering why people from the countryside smiled more.

“You’re the new farmer in town, right?” The bartender asked. 

“It really is one of those ‘everyone knows everyone’ kind of places, isn’t it?” Jiho said with a grimace, placing the palms of her hand against the edge of the bar so that her fingers touched the underside of the bar table.

“Well, the old owner of the farm was kind of a big deal in town, so it was an awful hot issue when someone was finally moving in the place,” the bartender said. 

“That puts an awful lot of pressure on me, doesn’t it?” Jiho said dryly. The bartender laughed, and Jiho rather liked the sound. Mimi was trying to call Jiho back over to them, but Jiho waved her off. 

“You’re already very close with Mimi aren’t you?” The bartender asked, noticing the person calling to Jiho.

“She’s my cousin, so she became my de facto guide when I arrived,” Jiho explained. The bartender closed her eyes, nodding her head in understanding. 

“That makes sense. We were also all wondering why Mimi wasn’t the one inheriting the farm, considering how much she worked there before it moved hands.”

“She said something about already being lined up to take on her own family business, not to mention I guess he was my great uncle, or something, She wasn’t related to him, though I don’t understand the specifics of my relationship with him.”

“Either way, it’s good to-”

“YOO! SHI! AH!” A voice cut in, Mimi suddenly appearing next to Jiho, leaning against the counter. “How are ya, beautiful?”

“Mimi.” the bartender gave Mimi a disapproving look. 

“Can we order another round?” Mimi asked hopefully.

“I feel like I should cut you off.” Mimi made a noise of disapproval. “Give me one reason why I don’t?”

Mimi furrowed her eyebrows, deep in thought, before answering suddenly. “JinE isn’t here?”

“Coming right up.” Mimi let out a victorious cheer, returning to her friends. Jiho watched Mimi leave with a curious look on her face, before turning the look towards Shiah.

“I really shouldn’t, but it’s hard to say no to them,” Shiah admitted. “They’re a recipe for disaster, but harmless right now.” She looked to see if Jiho understood, and explained further when she noticed Jiho still looked confused. “Seunghee’s the hype-man of the century and Hyojung, despite being the oldest of the four of them and also being responsible for the children of here and the three surrounding towns as well as our town physician, has no clue what a bad idea is. Mimi herself isn’t that bad, she’s not much of a thinker--not to say that in a rude way!” Jiho laughed. “The issue isn’t any of the three of them, but their absent leader: Shin Hyejin. If you want to get yourself in a bad situation talk to her. She’s not a bad person or anything, but she comes up with a lot of ridiculous ideas and there’s nobody there to stop her.”

“You say this like you’ve had bad experiences,” Jiho said with a laugh to signal it as a joke. The look Shiah gave her instantly stopped her laugh.

“I was close with Mimi back when we were still in school and while I made it out unscathed, Mimi has visited the hospital a few times. She’s the only person in town to be medically flown out to the district hospital.” 

“That’s…” Jiho trailed off.

“You’ll meet Hyejin, she runs the ranch nearby,” Shiah said. 

“They’re really a lot,” Jiho mumbled. Realizing what she said, she tried to cover herself by quickly adding to her statement. “Not that I don’t enjoy that they’re trying to include me and all--honestly there aren’t many people in town and the idea of hanging around people my age is really exciting but Seunghee already showed her starfish impersonation on top of the pool table and I didn’t think you could top that but then she really did and--”

Shiah laughed, waving a hand in front of her own face in a stopping motion to cut Jiho off. “I get what you mean, they’re nice but they’re a bit high energy all the time.” Jiho nodded, thankful Shiah understood her. “Are you going to get another drink?” 

“Oh, no. I was planning on sneaking out before they noticed,” Jiho said, giving a weary look in Mimi and her friends’ direction, seeing them successfully distracted in what looked like a burping contest (Jiho would make fun of it if she hadn’t participated in worse types of competitions at home). 

“I’ll see you around then,” Shiah said with a smile. Jiho nodded and bid her farewell, thinking to herself that she’d probably never see Shiah again, considering she was exhausted already and she was pretty sure it wasn’t even midnight yet. This would not be where she would find herself frequently.

* * *

 

Jiho met Binnie at midnight one Tuesday night. Binnie had apparently been out of town when Jiho moved in, not hearing the news that the overgrown land she used to traverse on especially boring days was now occupied by an irritable and  _ annoying _ young farmer. 

She had just visited because her family was being annoying about her being back home (they didn’t like her going out of town frequently and they didn’t like the idea of the precocious 22 year old running a library, even if her visits out of town brought very cool books back for said library), so she’d escaped the home to clear her head a little. She hadn’t really expected to find the land in a lot better condition than she’d left it, cleared with crops growing, and she especially didn’t expect to find a frightened girl with long hair brandishing an axe, demanding she state her name and purpose or she would use said axe. 

Their relationship didn’t calm down after Binnie explained who she was, that she had no idea that someone lived in the property again, and that she’d never meant to trespass (or that Jiho’s axe was backwards and while a strong blow to the front of her head would send her down, it wouldn’t achieve its intended purpose). 

They were incredibly similar in many ways, Jiho and Binnie, especially in the way they both decided to be absolutely ruthless to the other one. Binnie would stop by the farm in the mornings to help Jiho out, only to be pushed away and yelled at. Jiho was stubborn to a fault, especially when it came to admitting her farm was more than a one person job and she could actually use Binnie’s help. She would rant and rave about how ridiculous it was that Binnie was pretending Jiho couldn’t do anything on her own, until Binnie came up with some ultimately fake reason that she was getting away from her family or friends and Jiho accepted it.

It was a month into their friendship that Binnie finally gave in to Arin’s pesterings about having not met the new farmer and invited Jiho to hang out with them. Jiho arrived at one in the afternoon, having delegated the rest of the farm care to an unusually accommodating Mimi, who said something about Jiho deserving a day off every once and awhile and pushing the girl on her way. 

They were at the library because Binnie still had to work, genuinely apologetic that she couldn’t get a day off without closing the place down. Binnie wasn’t actually concerned about being in the library while it was open, considering if a book went missing she would know exactly who took it (“if a cooking book goes missing the bar or Hyojung has it. If it’s a mystery novel it belongs to Mimi or Seunghee, and if it’s a psychology or academic book then I took it out”), not to mention people had a perfect track record of renewing or returning books without late fees. 

Jiho met Arin, whose real name was Yewon (she was called Arin because of another girl named Yewon who they went to school with, and the nickname stuck even after high school). Arin was quiet, but had a loud laugh that came out frequently. Arin didn’t work, either, and lived with her parents in the large house near the center of the town (Jiho had used it as a land mark her first few months there, the house being the only recognizable thing, for some reason).

She also saw Shiah again. She learned that Shiah was inexplicably nicknamed YooA (Shiah had mumbled something about high school and Mimi and Hyejin, but Jiho didn’t understand a word of it and opted to just call the girl Shiah if she could help it). 

Binnie, YooA, and Arin had decided that it was their duty to not only make sure Jiho was comfortable, but that she understood and assimilated into the town properly. YooA had explained it: they’d decided that not only should Jiho feel included by everyone, but she shouldn’t have to suffer exhaustive conversations about town happenings that she didn’t understand.

“Basically everyone in town inherits their family business,” Binnie started, as though this was the best way to start any explanation of the town. “Since it’s all family business, you learn on the job. It’s a rare occasion for someone to go to college or do something other than what their parents did.”

“The only socially acceptable way to change your family business is to get married,” Arin explained.

“Not in a sexist way,” Binnie clarified. “If you marry in the town you can basically just switch which business you work in, and if move out of town then you forego your responsibility altogether.”

“But the stores and shops have been here for as long as anyone can remember,” YooA finished. “You just end up inheriting your family’s business and making the most of it. That’s why I work at the bar.”

“What does Arin inherit then?”

“Arin’s dad is the mayor,” Binnie said, giving Arin a sly grin. It must have been some inside joke between them, something that Jiho didn’t get. “We want to rename the position emperor so she can be the empress of the town.”

“It’s a ceremonial position, more or less,” Arin explained, ignoring Binnie. “Any time there’s a town event or when another government official shows up I greet them and show them around or run the town event. I also act as a mediator during town hall meetings.”

“And gets a huge fucking house!” Binnie added.

“Is that all you care about?” Arin asked, glaring at Binnie. “The house?”

“Of course not, you know I think you’re amazing.” Binnie seemed genuinely distressed and Jiho felt a moment of panic at having to watch them fight. Arin was refusing to look at Binnie, and while her eyes surveyed the landscape around them she locked her gaze with Jiho’s for a moment, a humored glint giving away something Binnie hadn’t noticed. “You’re the best, y’know? Even if you didn’t inherit a huge house--but like listen it’s cool that you do and I’m not saying you shouldn’t and I just- You’re the bee's knees, you know?” 

“Bee’s knees?” Arin asked, unable to stop herself from laughing. Binnie gave confused looks to the other two at Arin’s sudden laughter.

“She wasn’t being serious, you moron,” Jiho said, earning herself a glare from Binnie. 

“Why don’t you shut up and not butt into conversations you aren’t a part of.” Binnie turned so she was full facing Arin, essentially shutting YooA and Jiho on the other side of the table out of the conversation. 

“They’re always like this,” YooA said to Jiho. “They’ve been dating since Arin graduated from school. Binnie has a ridiculous soft spot for her, always has, but she’s so dense she can never tell when Arin is joking around with her.”

Jiho laughed. “They seem to get along well, regardless.”

“They really do,” YooA said with a smile.

* * *

 

Jiho would hang around Binnie, Arin, and YooA whenever she had a spare moment, although that wasn’t very frequent. She hung around with Mimi’s friends as well, but they tended to function mostly at night, and Jiho was usually exhausted by then and would call it a night (the one time she hadn’t ended with a very drunk and nearly tattoo-ed Hyojung). 

One afternoon in the fall, before it got too cold to meander outside, while Jiho was enjoying an afternoon with YooA, Binnie, and Arin, she was finally introduced to Shin Hyejin. 

When Hyejin slid down beside her with Hyojung in tow one afternoon, Jiho could have been fooled into thinking the girl was nothing but nice and normal.

“Mimi and Seunghee are going to have a competition and we were wondering if you four,” Hyejin gave a pointed look to Jiho and her friends. “Would be interested in seeing and potentially making monetary guesses on who will win in this battle of human strength.”

“I have twenty dollars on Mimi,” Hyojung chimed in. 

“There’s no way in hell I’m going to see another one of their competitions,” Binnie said with a disapproving look.

“This one will be good, I promise!” Hyejin replied. “Plus I’ve completely removed fire from the equation so neither Mimi nor Seunghee will think about going bald again.”

“Was this your doing?” Arin asked.

“Whatever could you mean?”

“Did you egg them on until they decided to do something stupid like last time.”

“Listen, I took time out of my day to come down here and invite you. If you aren’t planning on going let me know, but I’d  _ love _ to have you.”

Binnie opened her mouth to reject, but Jiho spoke first. “I’ll go.”

“Jiho, no,” Arin said.

“It seems like fun, plus we weren’t really doing anything interesting anyway.” Jiho said with a shrug, standing to follow Hyejin and Hyojung back to the water. 

It was logrolling. They were engaged in an intense logrolling competition. They started on two separate logs, seeing who could stay on the log for the longest time, but since time measurement was done by Hyojung loudly counting (and she had an intensely unfair bias towards Mimi), they settled for each of them on the same log, trying to see who would fall off first.

Jiho was, to say the least, pleased she had gone. Binnie had engaged in Hyojung’s bet, doubling it in favor of Seunghee winning (spoiler alert: Seunghee won. From what YooA said, Mimi hadn’t won a competition between the two of them in years), and Arin spent most of it as crowd control, preventing Hyejin from escalating the situation any further. YooA stayed beside Jiho for most of it, providing entertaining commentary on the competition in front of them, as well as context for some of the more outlandish comments Mimi or Seunghee made during the competition (“I won’t forgive you for the Computer-Ghost-Pepper Incident” had a surprising backstory to it).

* * *

 

Mimi had to go back out to sea on a fishing trip until summer, during the spring of Jiho’s second year on the farm. Jiho was sad to see Mimi go, but the opportunity to prove that she actually knew her way around the farm without Mimi’s overseeing was exciting. 

Mimi had, apparently, foolishly promised YooA that she would teach her how to fish, not realizing that she would be away at sea during the day she’d promised to do it. Mimi relegated the management of the oversight to Binnie, who should have logically let YooA know that Mimi had messed up (like it would surprise her) and that they would just have to postpone the lesson until the summer. Binnie was an idiot, however, and decided instead to close down the library for a day and show up at Jiho’s first thing in the morning, pushing Jiho away from her farm and towards the town.

Binnie had decided in her incredibly intelligent (but tragically misguided) mind that because Jiho was related to Mimi that she must have some understanding or talent towards fishing. Jiho didn’t know how (read: didn’t have time) to explain that Mimi’s family had only visited hers in the city, that she’d only been fishing a handful of times as a young child, and that this also made no logical sense.

Binnie got her way; she was persuasive and annoying and stubborn, mostly the latter two in Jiho’s opinion. She was certainly not persuaded by Binnie into doing anything. She did it because she knew Binnie wouldn’t back down and she was willing to be the bigger person, obviously. 

It wasn’t until they were already at the water of a nearby lake, a few hours into their day, that YooA finally had the sense to ask.

“You have no idea how to fish, do you?” It was a question, but it came out more like a statement. Jiho groaned, resting head in her hands and nodding.

“Here’s what I remember,” Jiho said, still covering her face. “The worm goes on the hook, the  hook goes in the water, the fish comes out of the water.”

YooA laughed. “I caught a fish, so I guess your method works.”

“Binnie pushed me out the door before I could explain that I don’t know how to fish very well. My dad took me a few times, but mostly I preferred skipping stones or exploring my surroundings to the actual sitting and fishing part.”

“What was she thinking,” YooA said. “Sending you along to teach me how to fish?” 

“I think Binnie thought it was genetic. That Mimi was a good fisher because of some genes that I’d also inherited.”

The two gave up on fishing less than twenty minutes later, taking the rest of their time to just sit and watch the water. Jiho calmed down intensely after the fear of teaching someone how to fish was gone. Talking with YooA was nice. YooA was nice.

* * *

 

Jiho didn’t realize Mimi and Hyojung were dating until her third year in the town, when Mimi oh so casually decided to bring up the fact that she had a wedding coming up at the end of the year.

“I was looking for you to be my best man, or bridesmaid, or whatever it’s supposed to be called,” Mimi said, scratching the back of her head. She was set to go out fishing again, a deep sea trip before her wedding, probably the last one she would go on. Fishing was a dangerous game; the boat was left to the mercy of the ocean and sometimes it didn’t come back. After the wedding she would focus on fish closer to the shoreline. They wouldn’t have to hire a whole crew to do it and it would change the products they were selling a bit too. Mimi’s family was also looking forward to not losing their daughter a few months out of the year. Jiho saw the inaudible relief in Hyojung as well (it made her feel rather stupid that she hadn’t noticed their relationship, but she staved off that thought for another day).

When Jiho accepted the proposition Mimi looked relieved, making Jiho swear she would make it a low stress affair and wouldn’t try any funny pre-wedding parties or anything, because those were not Mimi’s style at all. Jiho smiled and promised, fully aware that there was no time for extravagant things like that, considering Mimi more or less stepped off the fishing boat and onto the alter.

* * *

 

Jiho was not a fool and not as in denial about the reality of her emotions as she would like to be. She was hyper aware of how everything made her feel and how she felt about everyone (it’s why, despite all of their arguments, she never stopped being friends with Binnie. She knew she enjoyed the girl whether  she wanted to admit it or not).

Jiho wasn’t a fool enough to deny how she felt, especially when it was too obvious to deny. She would smile a little too long or laugh a little too hard, accept invitations to go to the bar with Mimi even though every fiber of her being was screaming to go to sleep early. Not to mention the fact that she let up her stubborn attitude any time there was a possibility of getting to spend a few more moments around YooA. 

It was now, in the summer of Jiho’s third year, while Mimi was away on her final boating trip and Hyojung spent every day glued to the radio to listen to the specific station that offered the weather report for those on sea near them, Jiho decided to act on her feelings.

She had no certainties, no way of knowing if YooA felt anything back, but there was no point in letting feelings fester uselessly. Kim Jiho was many things, but she was not a coward to be deterred by the possibility of rejection. Mimi would have been the person most likely to know whether YooA felt anything back, the two were shocking close considering they didn’t share a friend group, but since she was away Jiho was left without a clue. She could have talked to Binnie about her feelings, but rejected the idea due to fear of being mocked mercilessly (even if she knew Binnie gave the best advice, some things weren’t worth the effort), and Arin, as much as Jiho knew the girl could read her like an open book, remained as enigmatic as she’d been the first time Jiho had met her--that is to say they rarely spoke one on one, usually with at least Binnie if not several other people preventing a private conversation.

Jiho ended her day early on a Tuesday, around four in the afternoon when she was supposed to be repairing fences that had worn down, choosing instead to head into town. The bar technically opened around three (the restaurant portion opened around noon but the lunch rush usually ended around two), but nobody visited the bar until the evening (when there are less than a hundred people in your town, everyone would know if you decided to start drinking at three in the afternoon, and everyone would judge you for it). 

Jiho entered the place around three, noting immediately how quiet it was without the usual bustle of townsfolk drinking and catching up with each other. YooA was at the bar, polishing a tray of glasses and returning them to the shelf, not noticing someone coming. Jiho cleared her throat, alerting YooA of her existence before moving forward, not wanting to startle the girl too much and risk her dropping a glass. 

“It’s unusual to see you here, especially alone,” YooA said by way of greeting, placing her glass down and leaning forward, giving her full weight to her hands, the palms of her hands pushed down on the top of bar table, giving her full attention to Jiho. “Do you want anything to drink? It’ll be on the house.” She gave Jiho a large smile.

“I wanted to talk to you about something,” Jiho said. Her voice came out higher pitched than she’d intended, so she cleared her throat, trying to calm herself down. She wasn’t a fool enough to rest on unrequited feelings without any confirmations, but vocalizing those feelings was harder than she’d expected. “Well, to ask you something actually.”

YooA frowned a little, more curious than upset. “What is it?”

“I’ve just been thinking--and correct me if I’m wrong and it’s totally cool if I am wrong, but I’ve just- Well-” Jiho paused, took a deep breath, and tried again. “We spend a lot of time together, but usually with other people around, or in unintentional encounters. I think maybe we should spend more time together just the two of us, intentionally.” YooA gave Jiho a blank look, so Jiho tried to explain more. “We could take the bus into the city or something and go see a movie, or go out to dinner, or both. There are some restaurants I used to go to with friends back in college that I think you’d like. Or we could try somewhere new or something.” Another blank look. “Like on a date. You can say no b-”

“Oh!” YooA’s eyes light up like she finally got it. “Sure! That sounds fun.”

“Really?”

“Of course,” YooA broke into a large smile again. “I wasn’t sure what way you meant of hanging out, but I definitely would like to go on a date with you.” 

Jiho left after that feeling like she was on cloud nine, already thinking of how to convince Binnie to watch the farm on Friday so she could go into the city with YooA. 

* * *

 

Mimi didn’t return until long after their first (and many other subsequent) dates. She’d heard from Seunghee, who go the info from JinE after JinE had been talking with Binnie one day when Binnie was helping on the ranch, and Binnie had only found out because YooA had told Arin. When the convoluted web finally made its way to Mimi she was furious that Jiho hadn’t told her immediately (despite Jiho’s constant protests that it was Mimi’s second day back and she spent the whole first day sleeping and the second day, which they were currently in, she had woken up at ten and went to say hi to JinE who immediately opened with “Guess who’s dating you won’t so I’m going to tell you anyway it’s Jiho and YooA”). 

Jiho was forced to recount a months old date, and it wasn’t until she forcibly covered Mimi’s mouth and threatened to cut her tongue out that Mimi gave up on forcing Jiho to recount every subsequent date (“But,” Mimi had said. “You could always let me read your diary if you kept track of these things.” Jiho hated how serious Mimi sounded about it). 

The big deal, to Mimi, was that she had been setting this up a while (“You think I ‘accidentally’ made plans during my summer fishing trip? As if. Binnie and I spent weeks planning that.”

“What the hell is the purpose of that?” Jiho had angrily retorted.

“You want to hear the girl everyone thought you were dating in high school talking about how hot your cousin is? I don’t!”)

Mimi’s shock was short-lived, and everything slid back into a normal routine. Mimi and Hyojung were married in the fall of that year, and Jiho and YooA were spared the fate of being mocked mercilessly about catching the bouquet, mostly because Binnie jumped the gun on making fun of Jiho, acting a little too early and getting herself and Arin mocked mercilessly in turn (“If looks could kill,” Jiho had heard JinE mumble to Seunghee. “I don’t know how Binnie has lived this long.”)

Jiho’s fourth year on the farm started with a mild winter. She had become accepted in the town her first year and grew comfortable in it during her second. In her third year, she made it her home.


End file.
